Surely there are plenty of people who would like to change the annual Times Union Best of the Capital Region poll. I imagine that many of them are lobbying to include a category that serves their personal self-interest. Given the tenacious, entrepreneurial, and competitive nature of our local cupcake bakers, they must be calling weekly to try and find a way onto the ballot.

Let me begin by saying that I have no horse in this race.

My family moved to the region over four years ago from Berkeley, California. The transition was not easy. But over the years, I have diligently sought out magnificent and wonderful places that make the Capital Region truly special: fantastic restaurants that one would not expect to find in a region outside the top 50 DMAs and unique offerings that cannot be found anywhere else.

And every year when the Best of the Capital Region poll is released, I’m crestfallen to see none of these places even get mentioned. To dismiss this poll as a popularity contest is doing the paper and the community a great disservice. What could be a source of great regional pride has recently only served to reinforce the stereotypes of Albany as a backwater of civilized society.

Furthermore, these feelings are not mine alone. Others have noticed and are similarly discouraged.

To be sure, improving the results will take time. But the first step is fixing the questionnaire. I have three specific suggestions that will help to move the poll in the right direction.

1) Individual Locations

There are many people who have suggested that chains have no place on the Best of the Capital Region results. I’m not entirely convinced of that, especially since in many cases the local outposts are owned and operated by members of our community.

However, as consistent as any chain may try to be, there are variations between locations. This is certainly true for the Best local grocery store category. It’s really impossible for most people to take a holistic view of a chain grocer in the region, given its relatively large footprint. Votes become more like guesses based on a reader’s personal experience.

Not only would it be more accurate, but it would also be more useful and interesting to ask people what is the best individual local grocery store. It would give The Fresh Market a chance to take the first place in the category, and it could wake people up to the splendor that is the Slingerland’s Price Chopper or their store on Central and New Karner. Hannaford could take it with their Latham store. It’s anyone’s ballgame.

This logic should hold true for EVERY CATEGORY. Best individual drug store/pharmacy, best individual pizza place, etcetera.

Will it be harder for our larger local chains to win than in years past? Sure. But it will also make it harder for places like Pizza Hut, whose mere presence on the list of Best pizza is insulting for a region where the standard for pizza is higher than most of the country. It should also give a better chance to smaller places that make truly amazing pizza, like DeFazio’s and Pizza King.

2) The Categories Themselves

When this survey started 15 years ago, I understand that the Capital Region was a very different place. Perhaps there weren’t a lot of ethnic restaurants and it made a lot of sense to try and group them by their geographic region.

But categories like Best Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurant and Best Indonesian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant have to go. As one of my readers succinctly put it, “They are embarrassing and make us look like hillbillies standing next to the outhouse with a straw between our teeth.”

We have a glut of sushi and teppanyaki restaurants, which could easily fall in two category, but at the very least need to be extracted from Chinese and Korean cuisines. We have plenty of restaurants that offer exclusively Chinese food, which should absolutely have its own category. Yes, there are still some places that offer a little bit of both. For those I would suggest an umbrella Best Pan Asian for beloved institutions like Ichiban, which continue to serve both Chinese and Japanese cuisine.

Another ethnocentric question on the poll asks readers to vote on the best ethnic market. All the responses are Italian. We have an amazing variety of South Asian, East Asian, African, and Latin markets in the region. This may need to be broken up into two categories as well: Best Italian market and Best ethnic market.

Then there are the things that are unique to our region that are completely missing from this list. We are in the heart of apple country, and there is no question about Best apple orchard? The Capital Region also has a unique style of hot dog, the three-inch wiener with the works, and a Best mini-hot dog with meat sauce category would help to draw attention to this regional specialty. The same holds true for Best fish-fry sandwich.

At the end of this letter I’ve attached a list of categories that has been revised to reflect the above.

3) Best versus Favorite

There is a fine line between the things someone might like the most (aka their favorite) and what they know achieves a higher standard (aka the best).

For example, my favorite local bakery is Crisan. I love them because they are committed to using high quality ingredients, it’s conveniently located, they accommodate last minute orders, their baking skills are excellent, they offer a great product at an outstanding value, and I enjoy chatting with the staff. Crisan may make the best pastry in Albany, but it is not the best bakery in the area.

That is Mrs. London’s. Their croissants are the best I’ve had anywhere, and they also bake some killer bread. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s out of the way. Sure, it’s a little precious inside. But it’s the best.

I believe that your readers can make these distinctions themselves if they are reminded at the beginning of the poll that the Times Union isn’t looking for their favorites, but rather their thoughts on which individual location is truly the best. It may not be the place they go every day. Likely it is not. It may be the place where one goes for special occasions.  The best place may even be the one that is just a little bit better than your favorite spot, it’s just a bit off the beaten path.

In some ways, this last bit is a matter of semantics. In other ways it’s the one thing that gets to the heart of the issue. Very few people would say that Subway makes the best sandwiches if they sat down and thought about the difference between The Best and their favorite. Subway may have the best value, it may have the best speed of service, or it might be the most convenient. But I refuse to believe that a plurality of your readers cannot recognize there are better sandwiches in the area.

As you retool the Best of the Capital Region ballot for 2012, please consider the above suggestions. I look forward to the day when the picture painted by the major Albany newspaper matches the Albany I’ve come to know and love, and getting this ballot right is the first step in that direction.

Sincerely,
Daniel Berman
and the undersigned
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Note: That means if you agree, please say so in the comments below.
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I’ll tell you this right now, Stewart’s did not win.

The full results will be up later this week, I promise. But for right now, I can’t even think of eggs, which makes the Sunday breakfast post a bit challenging. Instead, let’s turn our thoughts over to breakfast meat.

Glen over at Rolf’s eats a steak every morning for breakfast. God bless him. I wish I had his genes. Steak is a lot more common breakfast meat than say, smoked pork chops. And while Taylor ham may be common in New Jersey and scrapple is widely available in Pennsylvania, these options rarely make it this far north. In case you were wondering, I consider corned beef hash in a separate category all by itself.

No, most of the country has to choose from the holy trinity of pork: Bacon, ham or sausage. One of these is clearly superior to the other two. And while you can probably guess which one, my reason may surprise you.

Obviously it’s bacon.

Now before you start flying off the handle, bacon is not always the best choice. If you find yourself in the south and there is a fine country ham on the breakfast menu, it would clearly take the prize.

But breakfast ham can be bad. Some hams are injected with water and heavily processed to the point of producing a salty and smoky sponge. I like my ham to resemble an actual pig’s leg. I like to be able to see the individual muscles, and the layers of fat and connective tissue that divide them. This helps to give me the confidence that I’m eating food and not science.

Sausage too can be amazing. Some restaurants pride themselves on grinding their own sausage by hand. Others, like Dan’s Place Two, may not make their own, but excel at cooking the stuff.

Still, if you don’t know where it comes from, sausage can be pretty scary stuff. Meat requires a certain amount of trust in the first place. Ground meat requires a lot more, because once it’s all ground up and highly seasoned, almost anything could be in there. I’ve been served unappetizingly thin industrially produced sausage patties and factory-made tightly packed links that had virtually no flavor on their own. It’s actually sad that animals had to die to make these horrid foodstuffs.

Bacon, on the other hand, is different.

Bacon always comes from the same part of the pig, its deliciously fatty belly (well belly bacon does anyway). And you can see with your own eyes the red and white streaks of meat and fat, which show the meat has not been adulterated. Plus you are guaranteed that your meat came from no more animals than the number of bacon strips on our plate. A sausage on the other hand could be made from hundreds or even thousands of carcasses.

Plus the downside to bacon is minimal. Ordering it crispy insures against it being undercooked. One needs to trust that doing so will not result in the cook burning your meat, because crispy is not the same thing as charred.

It’s also a good bit less food than the other options. It’s more like a meat cracker than a big old hunk of protein. You know, those crackers that are cooked in their own fat.

Most of the time, I skip meat at breakfast. However, if I’m going to indulge, especially at a place where the provenance of the sausage is an unknown entity, I’m going for bacon. And not because it’s trendy, because it’s not. Bacon is totally played out. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t occasionally order it.

My intentions for the FLB have been to keep it separate from restaurant reviews. Those are mostly reserved for Yelp. In a few days I hope to post a review there on the food I ate at MezzaNotte last night. Instead today, I’m going to focus on one larger issue about restaurants that was inspired by my meal.

Overall, I was pleased with the experience. It was a decent value at half the restaurant’s normal prices. But in many ways the food was lacking. Still, I was impressed with the entrée. The chef had the guts to go without a vegetable on the plate, and the confidence to be simple with clean bright flavors. In this town, that’s really notable.

However, the fish along with most everything else I was served, was under seasoned. Fortunately, there was a shaker of salt on the table. But this turns out to be a double-edged sword. Does a shaker of salt belong on the table at a restaurant of this stature? You know, one with white linens where the plurality of entrées cost $24.

The argument against the shaker is that food should come out of the kitchen perfectly seasoned. There should be no need for adjustments made at the table. From a cooking perspective, salt works better in the kitchen than at the table. As food is cooking, this critical seasoning helps to bring the flavors together and create a savory undercurrent to a dish. Sprinkling the stuff on top of food that’s already cooked is a Hail Mary to try and perk up something bland.

Thus, saltshakers are not routinely found on the table at many of the world’s top restaurants.

It should be noted that I don’t particularly have a salt-tooth, or a sweet-tooth for that matter. Mine is more of a fat-tooth. And I almost never reach for the salt at a restaurant. If anything, most restaurants tend to use generous amounts of the stuff in their cooking. Some like Capital City Gastropub occasionally go too far and cross the line from savory into salty.

At MezzaNotte the gnocchi absolutely required salt. It was billed as, “Chestnut and winter squash gnocchi in a buttery sage sauce”. I did not ask for more details on the dish, and simply assumed it was the gnocchi that were made from chestnuts and squash (in addition to potato). But in reality, it was potato-ricotta gnocchi in a sweet squash and sage butter sauce with chestnut pieces and shallots.

It was sweet. Not sweet as in awesome or cool, but sweet as in sugary. And despite having additional grating of Parmesan, the dish needed salt to bring it into balance. The upside is that once the gnocchi were salted, they were pretty light, and tasty.

Now, had the saltshaker not been on the table, I would have needed to ask for it. If this had been a restaurant that prides itself on producing perfectly seasoned food, then this action of requesting salt might have raised a red flag. It may have also initiated one of those awkward but sometimes-helpful conversations between the restaurant and a displeased customer.

In this case I was glad that the salt was on the table, because I really didn’t feel like having that conversation. Especially since for the price, the food was fine. Had I been paying retail for the gnocchi, it may have played out differently.

Still, I have a problem with a shaker of salt that lives on every table in a nice restaurant. It seems to me an implied commitment to under seasoning the food. Either that or it’s an indictment of a restaurant’s patrons, assuming they will only be happy if they can over season their food with salt.

Diners and casual places are different. I don’t expect them to operate at the same level. But part of expert preparation that justifies high-end restaurant prices is producing food that is well seasoned. When it comes to the table it should require nothing. Not fresh cracked pepper, not grated cheese, and certainly not salt.

Thanks for hearing me out. I feel a bit better now.

Screw local food. You know what I just ate? A tangerine. In upstate New York. At the end of January.
And I loved it.

You know what else I love? Coffee. That doesn’t grow here. Neither does chocolate. Nor the olives for my olive oil. For the past month we’ve eaten more rice than I ever thought imaginable, and I don’t know if it’s even possible to cultivate the grain in New York. If Little Miss Fussy had to give up her mango lassi habit, I fear she wouldn’t have the will to get out of bed for a month.

Sure, if one were enterprising, I imagine there is a way of producing a local salt. But pepper is out of the question. We have great local cheeses, but none of them is Parmigiano-Reggiano. If necessary, I could be content with local wine, beer and spirits. However I’m not giving up on the amazing variety of foodstuffs that, while they may come from far away, help to create a global village.

Now that you know I’m no ideologue, I have to tell you something about local food.

Some of it is amazing. There are some who will have you believe that local food is better just because it is grown by your friends and neighbors. That’s a really loose interpretation of better if you ask me. Perhaps you could make an argument that it’s better for the environment without all the added transportation costs, or better for the community since the money supports local business.

These are fine reasons to buy local foods. But they are not why I do it. I buy local foods because they taste better. Now that is a tenuous argument too, because not all locally grown foods taste better than those raised elsewhere. Think about milk. We have large industrialized milk facilities locally, which are just like those used all over the country to produce a consistent product state to state. Pretty much all milk that isn’t ultra-pasteurized is local as a matter of logistical necessity.

Let me say that again. Milk does not taste better because it’s local.

The local milk that does taste better does so not because it’s local. No, the good local milk is delicious because of the production practices used by a small operator who cares deeply about the product.

Some local fruits and vegetables taste better because they can be bred for flavor and not shelf life or transportation durability. Also, because they have less distance to travel, they can be picked later, closer to their peak ripeness, without as much risk of damage in transit. This short time from field-to-market is also critical for things like corn, where every day after it’s been picked sugar converts into starch.

Personally, I find that eating local gives me a much better sense and appreciation for the region and the natural cycles of the season. I know it’s spring, when the fiddleheads and ramps arrive. Summer officially starts before the first tomatoes come in, but it wouldn’t be summer for me without a no-cook panzanella of farm fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and red peppers.

I mention all of this now, because local farms are gearing up to prepare for the planting season. And that means those who operate under a Community Supported Agriculture model are starting to line up subscribers.

For the last two years, I have been a member of the Roxbury CSA. Last year was brutal. The year before was magnificent. So it goes. But even in the bad year, when hail ruined crops before the first harvest and the farm was decimated by two major floods, I still loved it.

Don’t be like me. I blew my chance at a Roxbury membership my first two years in the region. There aren’t many openings and they fill up quickly. That’s why I’m writing you now.

Open registration begins on Wednesday, February 1. That’s six days away. On that date, the forms and lists of open slots will be available on Roxbury’s website. Mark your calendars now. Plan to get online, and write a big check. You’ll need an envelope and a stamp too.

Then you’ll just have to cross your fingers and hope for great growing conditions.

And don’t worry. If you cannot get into the Roxbury CSA there are plenty of other local farms that run CSAs too. We are very lucky here in the Capital Region to have so many local farms that do good work. But I can tell you this now, when my local tomatoes come in, I’m dressing them with extra virgin olive oil and aged sherry vinegar from Spain.

Yes, it’s Souper Sunday.

Sorry. The Schenectady Greenmarket has too much class to enlist such a cheap pun to promote their event this upcoming weekend. Instead, they are calling it their 3^rd annual Market Cook-off. Last year’s theme was Spuds Are Not Duds. This year the theme is Soup!

I wouldn’t be doing this had it not been for Wendalicious who recommended me for the job. Thank you. Judging is one of the things I enjoy most. Seriously. But I’m also excited about this particular showdown for a few other reasons.

Eating seasonally in the summer is easy. The winter can be a bit more tricky. And frankly I’m surprised by how many people struggle with finding tasty things to do with potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, winter squash, apples, dried beans, cornmeal, other dried grains, cured meats, eggs, cheese, and other dairy (just to name a few).

Winter foods may need a bit more coaxing to transform it from its hard inedible form into something soft and soothing. But simmer them in a soup pot or roast them in the oven, and not only will they warm your house, but they will fill the air with deliciousness.

So seeing what the chefs make should be interesting, and hopefully inspiring.

It’s not a large event. There are only two or three chefs participating as a result of space limitations. At this moment I’m not entirely clear on the details, except that I’m to show up at the market on Sunday for the judging. Honestly, I would likely have been there anyway to pick up eggs, honey and some vegetables.

One of the chefs whom I expect will be participating is Chris Euripidou from the Farmer Boy Diner on Central Avenue. This seemed like a curious contender, a diner cook competing in a farmers market cook-off. But then I found out, he’s not just any cook. Chef Euripidou graduated summa cum laude from Johnson & Wales.

That’s a big deal. I had no idea. Now I’m looking forward to having a chance to meet him, and learning about how he came to be behind the stove at a diner on the edge of Colonie.

If you come to the market on Sunday, not only can you see me and get the unofficial rundown of the Tour de Egg Sandwich, but you can also get samples of the soups that are being made for the showdown. The judging itself happens between 12 and 12:30, so if you come, I hope you can stick around for the results. And besides the draw of the soup contest, they do have great eggs, honey, milk, pickles, pastry, breads, wine, produce, coffee, tea, prepared foods, kids activities, music and more.

If you’ve never been, the Schenectady Greenmarket is held in the Proctor’s lobby during the winter. Free parking is always available in the covered parking garage behind the Villa Italia bakery.

Anyhow, I wanted to make sure you marked your calendars, because Sunday isn’t that far away. If you cannot make it, I’m sure I’ll have a recap of the event next week. Although that’s a busy week too with another Super Bowl Sunday at its close.

The fun just never stops.

But eventually most kids go to school, and there they are exposed to a whole wide world of possibilities. Many of these include some truly awful foods.

I was amazed that Young Master Fussy came back from school singing a song whose only lyrics were fast food restaurant names and being told to buy Sunny-D by his teacher so that the library could earn free books. But those were a lot easier to combat than the newfound desire for the brightly colored foods he saw his classmates enjoying in the cafeteria and at snack time.

So what’s a dad to do? Well, believe it or not, I compromised. A little. There are two snack foods that have made it into a regular rotation. And while they aren’t great, neither makes me feel too uneasy. One happens to be truly surprising.

The kiddo was actually introduced to Smartfood popcorn in class. Unbeknownst to me, his teachers handed it out one day when the students were watching a movie.

I have a few complaints with popcorn:
1)    It’s so damn easy to make at home that buying it in bags seems wrong.
2)    The vast majority of corn is genetically modified, and I’m not into that.
3)    Often it can be made with solvent-extracted oils, and I don’t like that either.

Those things aside, Smartfood isn’t really all that bad. It’s corn, oil, cheddar cheese, whey, buttermilk and salt. It can be bought in 100-calorie pouches, so one isn’t compelled to eat through an entire bag once it’s opened.

Besides the concerns about the corn itself and the oil used to pop it, Smartfood is actually a pretty wholesome snack. I suppose I could stretch and feign concern about the cheese and buttermilk coming from industrially produced dairy cows that are treated with artificial growth hormones and antibiotics. And sure that’s a problem. But there is so little dairy involved that it’s hard even for me to get worked up about.

The second snack is probably a bit more unexpected. Perhaps you have seen it on your grocer’s shelf and laughed off the bizarre juxtaposition of terms: Natural Cheetos.

If you have never stopped to pick up the bag and check it out more carefully, let me blow your mind. The cynic in me assumed this was some kind of marketing ploy. After all, the word “Natural” is completely meaningless when it comes to food labels. And just because the package is printed with a pastoral wood-cutting motif in warm earth tones, doesn’t mean the product in the bag is any less processed than any other puff bearing Chester the Cheetah’s ugly mug.

But I was wrong.

The first two ingredients:
1) Organic corn meal (aka GMO-free)
2) Expeller-pressed sunflower oil (aka solvent-free & unlikely GMO)

Wow. Color me impressed. They also are made with organic sour cream, which means the cows were not treated with artificial growth hormones or antibiotics. Honestly, I was shocked when I first learned this.

Now granted, this is a highly processed food that contains natural flavors, and I’m not crazy about that.  But I have to tell you, that if Young Master Fussy is going to be eating something made by Frito-Lay, these are at the top of my list.

Naturally then, he prefers the Smartfood. But I’m hoping to break him from that with a few more amazing batches of homemade popcorn. Finding the right cheese topping is going to be a challenge. The microplane of Parm-Reg isn’t going to do it for Young Master Fussy. I may need to bite the bullet and buy the best cheddar powder I can find.

I’ll keep you posted.

What does it matter what Cheryl Clark says about a restaurant, or Ruth Fantasia, or Steve Barnes? They are just individuals. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, one can call upon Yelp, Urban Spoon, Trip Advisor, Open Table, or simply Google a restaurant to read countless reviews and see how it stacks up.

These online reviews capture multiple dining experiences over many nights from many different perspectives. The information that can be gleaned from these sources is invaluable. Sure, sometimes there may be conflicting reports, but when you find a place that is almost unanimously loved, you know it’s a winner.

Like when you search for the highest rated sandwich under the Delis category Cardona’s Market pops up to the top of the list with 4.5 stars on 36 reviews. That’s phenomenal, and even if your heart belongs to another Italian deli, surely you can agree that Cardona’s is indeed one of the best sandwich makers in the Capital District.

But the newspaper does indeed matter. It matters a lot. Especially when it conducts a broad poll of our populace and makes pronouncements about what things are The Best of The Capital Region. You know, like Subway.

Every year this survey kills me. Instead of instilling a sense of pride, the results widely elicit a feeling of shame. This year I’m being proactive, and I’d like your help.

You may be wondering, what’s the big deal? The poll is simply a popularity contest. Of course Subway would win. There are more of them than any other sandwich shop, so naturally they will get more votes.

Here’s the problem.

This poll affects not only how the region sees itself, but also how those outside the region see us. When people consider relocating to the area or take the next step and move here, among other things, this annual poll is a resource for information. Even established residents use the results to help them make purchasing decisions. This is why businesses campaign for votes and try to maintain their reputation as The Best Whatever in the Capital Region.

For the past several years the poll results have not painted a flattering picture of the region. And frankly, it infuriates me. The area may not be the most cosmopolitan in the country, but a lot of our best stuff is never recognized by the survey.

And I’m starting to realize that part of the problem is the ballot itself.

Take Chinese restaurants for example. Ala Shanghai does not even get a mention in the Times Union poll despite being far and away the most highly rated Chinese restaurant on Yelp with 4.5 stars on 49 reviews. Why? Well, because it is competing in a category called, Best Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurant and we happen to live in a place that loves its teppanyaki.

We actually have a handful of decent Chinese restaurants, which include Shining Rainbow, CCK, Hong Kong Bakery, Taiwan Noodle and Emperor’s. Don’t even dare try to tell me that Tai Pan in Clifton Park should be on that list. But that’s beside the point.

What we don’t have is a ton of Indonesian or Vietnamese restaurants. Still, that’s no excuse to merge these separate and distinct regional cuisines with Thai to form the dreaded Best Indonesian / Thai / Vietnamese restaurant category. Kinnarree, which I believe to be the best Thai in the area, doesn’t even get mentioned, since it’s squeezed out by the fine dining Indonesian restaurant Yono’s.

And those are only some of the worst offenders, I could go on.

Other categories could be made more specific in order to hone in on local businesses that are truly special and less on generic chains that mar our culinary landscape. Take the Best Sandwich category for example. If that were changed to Best Italian Deli (of which there are countless in the region) Subway would fall off the list, and we might be treated to a sampling of truly delicious sandwich choices.

This isn’t just about complaining. Did I mention that I have a plan?

Don’t tell anyone, but I did a little digging and found out that Michael Janairo at the Times Union is responsible for putting together the poll this year. And he has asked me for my thoughts and suggestions in writing so that they can be shared with the team over there.

But I want you involved. Yes, you. Last year, I took on a similar campaign a bit further downstream, and did not get your input early on. That was a mistake. In the months ahead, I’m going to ask for your support in pushing this agenda forward, and am looking forward to many conversations about what places are truly the best in the region.

For now, please tell me what else you think can be done to improve the survey. Be as specific as you wish. With your input I will cobble together an open letter to the Times Union that I hope I can get many of you to sign (or at least leave a comment with your support). We may or may not be able to get the changes on the ballot, but it’s a worthwhile effort to try.

You can see the results of last year’s Best of the Capital Region here. The section that pertains to dining is here. Although there are some food related entries in the goods and services section too.

The categories that really concern us are:
1)    Best local grocery store
2)    Best wine store
3)    Best beer store
4)    Best bakery
5)    Best ethnic market
6)    Best farmers market
7)    Best health food store (single location)
8)    Best restaurant to open in the past year
9)    Best restaurant for kids
10)  Best hamburger
11)   Best pizza
12)  Best sandwich shop
13)  Best Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurant
14)  Best Indonesian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant
15)  Best Indian/Pakistani restaurant
16)  Best Mexican/Central/South American restaurant
17)  Best Italian restaurant
18)  Best ice cream
19)  Best hot dogs
20)  Best sports bar
21)  Best coffee joint (single location)
22)  Best diner

I have some very strong feelings for improving most of these. And there are notable categories that are conspicuously absent. Seriously, how can there be no Best fish fry? And it’s absolutely criminal that there is no category for Best apple orchard.

You’ve seen a few of my thoughts above. Now it’s time to add your own below, or forever hold your peace.

But in all seriousness, kimchi fried rice would make a splendid morning meal. You know, if your spouse wasn’t dead set against the stuff. However, despite her protestations, I have a nice little corner of the refrigerator where a giant half-gallon tub of the stuff now resides. And on the lid of that tub sits my new favorite Korean condiment, gochujang.

I don’t know why people get obsessed with kimchi fried rice, but I do know that I have joined their ranks. Maybe it’s the colors, the deep yellow yolk that runs over the red-pepper-burnished rice. Or perhaps it’s the contrast of textures, from the crunchy bits of well-seared rice, to the slippery egg and the snap of the cabbage. It could simply be that the dish is just so damn easy to make, and just so damn delicious.

If you’ve been following my tweets, you may have noticed that I’ve been enjoying this dish a lot over the past few weeks. I’ve been making it for lunch, because that’s the meal I can cook just for myself, without having to consider anyone else’s preferences.

My lifelong friend ADS noticed, and he wanted to know how to make it. I’m happy to oblige.

That’s the nice thing about having a friend with a food blog. If you want a recipe, all you do is call, and the next day there’s a post on the subject burned into the Internet forever. Whenever you want to reference it, the recipe is just two clicks away.

We live in interesting times.

Before I can give a recipe regarding anything remotely Korean, I need to offer these words of warning. I know virtually nothing about Korean food, cooking, flavors, or preparations. Although I am learning.

As a result, I make kimchi fried rice fast and loose. That means it’s more about throwing things into a pan than sticking to a recipe. It’s never quite the same thing twice, and I’m okay with that. Mostly because despite how I make it, the dish maintains the same basic flavor profile. After all, it only contains a few ingredients.

It consists of old rice, onions, fermented cabbage, red pepper paste, oil, garlic, and an egg.

First I preheat a large well-seasoned cast iron skillet on the stove.
I drizzle in some of my favorite Lion & Globe peanut oil and crank the heat to high.
Then I toss in some sliced onions and sauté until clear.
In goes a bit of thinly sliced garlic, followed in seconds by an avalanche of old brown rice.
Here I often drizzle a bit more peanut oil over the rice.
Toss the rice with the oil, onions and garlic.
Remember the crispy burnt bits are the best so cook the hell out of it.
Toss a heaping spoonful of gochujang (level 3: medium spicy) onto the rice, and mix it in.
Throw in thinly sliced and drained kimchi.
Mix it up, heat it through, and put the pan aside.

Fry an egg however you like, so that the white is set and the yolk is runny.

Drizzle the fried rice with a hint of toasted sesame oil, and turn it into your warmed bowl, scraping up every last crispy bit of rice you can find. I like to sprinkle the whole thing with sesame seeds before I crown the dish with its egg.

Breaking the yolk open and mixing the egg into your hot steaming bowl of rice is one of life’s great pleasures.

Yes, you will likely need to make a trip to your local Asian market to find a jar of the gochujang. Look carefully at the ingredients on the label. Some are filled with junk, while others are a bit more wholesome. I’m quite happy with mine, and have been coming up with new uses for it. Just recently I tossed it with some bow tie pasta, and that too was delicious. Although next time I may look for a spiciness rating of level 4, since I do enjoy more assertively spiced preparations.

So after breakfast today, maybe you can get to the store and buy some. You might need to get kimchi as well. But if you have these items in your house, by this time next week, you should be chowing down on one of the tastiest rice-based breakfasts I know.

Upon stepping into the coffee shop I was suddenly overwhelmed by the heat of it all, and I couldn’t shed my outer layers fast enough. Had someone offered me an iced coffee, I would have gladly used it to help cool down. I might have even started rubbing the ice on my arms.

But that is still the exception and not the rule, because it’s cold here. And really it doesn’t help that Mrs. Fussy and I have a little game we play about who is going to be the first one to crack and turn up the heat. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not going to be me (one of us is hearty and the other one is just plain old stubborn).

Naturally, this makes warming drinks even that more appealing. So what was I doing last night with a fizzy cocktail full of ice?

It’s a long story.

Cocktails occasionally emerge based on what happens to be around. Look at Jamaican rum and coconut water or the mint julep. Well, I had two unusual ingredients cluttering up the house, and it was high time to find a use for them.

The stranger of them is a large bottle of mass-produced vodka. Now, before you get started, I don’t really drink vodka much. I like my spirits to have a bit more character than this clear and highly refined hooch. Yes, I purchased this 1.75L bottle of my own free will. But I only intended to use about an ounce of it to preserve a batch of homemade grenadine.

My problem is that I have a mental block against buying small quantities of things when there is a significant cost savings to going large.

For the record, I have yet to make the grenadine.

Less strange are the bottles of Reed’s Ginger Beer. I picked some up in Pennsylvania, with the idea of mixing them with rye. And that I did. Once. My in-laws weren’t going to drink this spicy soda, so it made the long trip back to Albany. And in the back of the fridge it sat.

Cocktail scholars probably already know where this is going. Because when you mix vodka with ginger beer, you are 90% of the way to a Moscow Mule. The only thing missing is the lime.

You cannot omit the lime.

So, yes. I did actually have to buy an additional ingredient so I could drink this cocktail classic in the middle of an Albany January. And it was delicious. I didn’t even need to get bundled up to drink the damn thing.

In many ways it is like my beloved Rickey. But instead of the spirit giving the drink its flavor and kick, vodka’s role in the Mule is purely kick. Of course, it’s a good bit sweeter too.

It’s amusing to think back to a day when vodka was widely despised by the American drinking public. But it was. And if you are one of those people who are glad to have your choice from hundreds of different vodkas on the shelves, you have the Moscow Mule to thank for the spirit’s popularity.

This drink is easy to make.

2 ounces of vodka
½ ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice
4-6 ounces of ginger beer

The only trick is to make sure you drop the empty shell of the lime into the glass. You may also want to give the drink the slightest stir, just to make sure it’s mixed. However, the bubbles will do most of the work for you.

There’s a joke in there somewhere about stubbornness as Mrs. Fussy and I sat around the table after the kids were in bed, enjoying our chilly cocktails inside our chilly house. She’s the hearty one. Guess which one I am.

The next one is for the town of Guilderland, a suburb of Albany immediately to the city’s west. It’s where I live, and where Mr. Dave left a little piece of his heart. The details are all here, but it runs from January 22 through January 28. During this period you can get a three-course meal at participating restaurants for $20.12.

Now, that’s only a bargain if the food is actually good.

Sure, it is interesting to see which places participate and which ones do not. Creo, arguably the fanciest restaurant in town, isn’t involved. Neither is The Standard or The Melting Pot. I could sit here and name names of the others who have dropped out or have perpetually sat on the sidelines. But that’s not too interesting.

More exciting are the places that are here for the first time, like Mio Vino Wine Bar and Bistro and J/A Prep Kitchen. However, the former hasn’t submitted their menu yet and the latter didn’t submit a menu that’s appealing.

So, where should you go?

Athos fails to get a recommendation from me because your choice for the first course is either an unspecified soup or an out-of-season Greek salad. And that’s a shame, because their oven roasted half chicken in lemon, oregano and fresh rosemary, with lemon potato, rice pilaf and vegetable sounds delicious. Well, except of the vegetable part. Why, oh why does Athos insist on the protein, starch and vegetable paradigm?

Barcelona for the first time is oddly compelling, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. Sure, they are serving something the folks at Epic Meal Time would enjoy: fried meat with Jack Daniels, cream and extra pork thrown in for good measure. And sure they have what is most likely farmed Atlantic salmon on the menu. But they also have what is likely a tasty calamari appetizer (which is a double edged sword in this town). Plus the flat iron steak with a tempranillo sauce and roasted red peppers sounds promising. The tres leches makes me a little nervous with their talk of vanilla pudding, but I’d still be curious to give it a try.

BFS continues to do little for me. Perhaps because I think this food is so over priced that even their restaurant week deals feel expensive. Seriously, here you get hummus and pita, followed by a chicken kabob and a piece of baklava for $20 in a homey setting? I’ll pass. Although a dish called Ravioli Fiesta is so wrong it might be right. Well, until I read that the, “Luscious Assorted raviolis” are topped with their puttanesca sauce. I like puttanesca, but I can’t think of many ravioli with which it would pair well.

J/A Prep Kitchen is the new player at the big Guilderland mall. It has a prime piece of real estate right across from the movie theater, and this could be a chance to shine. And on some level they are shining. For your $20 you could get a seafood chowder or French onion soup, followed by a choice top sirloin with garlic mashed potatoes, with a mini brownie sundae for dessert. The value is there, but it just feels dull.

MezzaNotte is one of the nicer restaurants participating, and they made an interesting decision. Their three courses are appetizer, salad and entrée. For the Primi course the chestnut and winter squash gnocchi in a buttery sage sauce sound amazing. But I could see the meatball soup with mushrooms, faro, cippolinis and spinach being delicious too. Anyone upstate who eats a salad in January must really need their roughage. Greens here are brutalized in transit through our freezing conditions. I’d put my bet on the hearts of romaine (with their Caesar dressing) rather than the mixed baby field greens as being a lot more appetizing on the plate. For the Secondi course, there really is only one choice worth writing about. That would be the Trota (aka trout) Picatta, which is sautéed in a lemon butter caper sauce over lemon risotto. Now that is how it’s done.

Peaches Café has always seemed like an overpriced diner that’s not even as good as some of the better greasy spoons I enjoy periodically. I recently encountered a picture from there of a broken hollandaise they served to a customer. Apparently he didn’t notice, but still. To start you get a choice of two salads or soup from a bag? I don’t need to see any more here. Let’s move along.

Provence just seems lazy. You either better like farmed Atlantic salmon or seasonal vegetables with garlic mashed potatoes. Because, yes, all the dishes except the salmon come with the same starch and vegetable. That’s so weak. What is this? 1972?

Tesoro on the other hand, sounds fabulous. It’s not a fancy place, but it is a classic red-sauce Italian-American institution within the town. I’ve never been, and this seems like a good chance to go with a couple friends and try all the classics: fettuccine Alfredo, mozzarella frita, linguini with clam sauce, chicken parm and veal with peppers. It’s not a light meal by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be perfect for taking off the chill of winter.

Of those restaurants that did not submit a menu as of last night, the one that holds the most promise is the Mio Vino Wine Bar & Bistro. Besides that, it’s MezzaNotte and Tesoro. Hopefully I can make it out to one of these three places next week. But if I’m still feeling fat from the holidays I may have to be good and stay home.

But that shouldn’t stop you from indulging.